HYDROGEOLOGISTS WITHOUT BORDERS

In most of the developing world more and/or cleaner water is urgently needed. Commonly, the surface water is already fully used, contaminated or non- existent. Therefore in many areas the only option for improved quantity and/or quality of source water is more or better groundwater extraction. Although this is widely recognized in many countries, the practical implementation of effective solutions has proven to be particularly elusive, even when adequate funds are available. Most such problems are site specific concerning solutions for farms, villages and towns requiring effective combinations of geologic, hydrologic, hydrochemical and technological expertise along with appropriate drilling methods commensurate with the local conditions. We refer here to this combination of expertise as hydrogeology. Well meaning initiatives intending to develop new water supplies often fail when such hydrogeologic understanding and insight is not present in the early stages. Appropriate hydrogeologic expertise is commonly hard to come by on development projects and often scarce in developing countries.

To improve on this situation a new NGO, Hydrogeologists Without Borders (www.hwbwater.org), has been established with the goal of collaborating with the NGO community to improve the integration of appropriate hydrogeology expertise in development work related to groundwater supplies. The incorporation of hydrogeology will ideally increase the degree of success in water-related projects significantly for a relatively small cost. HWB also focus on long-term capacity building in hydrogeology to develop in-country expertise.

This presentation will include HWB’s newly developed mandate and mission statement, and seeks input and advice from the water and development community in our early stages.